The "strategic" national "interests" in Ivory Coast vs. France

first published 10-November-2004

It was DAFT of the Ivory Coast government to put all their airforce hardware in one airport. But, had the entire fleet not been destroyed in one go, would the IC government have ordered a counter-attack on the occupying forces?

Like many other colonial-era African states, IC has no meaningful military strength. There are naval, land or airborne special forces to speak of. The citizens are not militarilised. Now the airforce is shot to bits. That leaves the army, which was the reason France was in IC on a "peace-keeping" mission. The UN heartily approves French action in IC, although it opposes similar USA occupation in Iraq. The UN is headed an African, born in Ghana, a colonial-era neighbour of IC.

The army had been resisting attacks from insurgents against the regime of President Laurent Gbagbo. The insurgents were at arms because they felt marginalised from economic development. Their candidate for president was disqualified from competing in IC elections on grounds that he is not a citizen of IC. Ivoriens had obviously not heard of globalisation, perhaps because the people were so busy being colomentally assimilated into what Franz Fannon referred to as "black skins, white masks", a phenomenom otherwise known as "coconut": brown-black on the outside, off-white on the inside.

Those from the mainly desert north never forgot or forgave the decision by Houphouët-Boigny to allow France test their nuclear bombs in the Sahara. HB ruled this cocoa-colony from the time of "independence" (from France) to 1993. During this time the number of European, Lebanese and Indian economic migrants into IC grew so much that they once made up 25pc of the population in capital, Abidjan. Many of these were illegal emigres entered IC under the "one France" travel agreement that enables French nationals to travel unimpeded into "former French possessions". Human traffic in the other direction is restricted by EU law. Nigerians and Ghanians need not gloat: the British Commonwealth exerts the same effect.

Being illegal emigres did not stop French farmers from privatising and controlling cocoa plantations established under HB. From these plantations, France (not Ivory Coast) supplies nearly half the global output of cocoa beans. Nearly all the profits are exported into buying respectability back in the French Riviera or deposited in Swiss-BeneLux bank accounts. Working conditions on the cocoa plantations have been compared to cotton plantations in the USA deep south, during the slavery era.

HB reminded his fellow Ivoriens, time and again, "that their closest and best friend was France and that France made daily sacrifices for Côte d'Ivoire by offering protected markets and military assistance. He insisted that France maintained troops near Abidjan as a favor to ensure Côte d'Ivoire's security without impinging on its larger development plans." Many fellow Ivoriens were circumspect about his naivety but could not openly contest his reasoning. This mood shifted when the big man finally died. Discontent flared into tribal warfare. Laurent Gbagbo's faction won over the region that includes the capital, Abidjan, also the operations hub of many international trading companies active in West Africa.

Those who perceive Nigeria as the 'giant of Africa' need to visit Ivory Coast. The more populous and English speaking Nigeria may have the potential to be a global economic and military super-power, if its government and people can sufficiently rouse themselves from colomentalist slumber. But the geographically smaller and French-speaking Ivory Coast is currently the international economic darling of the region. IC is of strategic interest because, under French's assimilation policy, it offers a backdoor into the Economic Community of West African States (Ecowas). IC is also the lynchpin in the France-dominated CFA currency zone with which the economies of ALL France's previous colonies are pegged to the European Euro (formerly pegged to French Franc, hence the name). In many ways, the CFA provided a testbed for the Euro.

African progressives will need to deal with the facts of France controlling post-independence "french" Africa via CFA anchored by Ivory Coast; and with Britain controlling post-independence "english" Africa via the Commonwealth anchored by Nigeria; and with USA trying to unseat the two EU member states as Africa's new "protector of market access and provider of military assistance". The "great games" played by these three G8 members accounts for much of the stalled progress towards actualisation of cross-border trades in the ECOWAS region, and in Africa as a whole.

But those who think that the Ivory Coast fracas is about rival Ivorien factions squabbling about whom to better service French trading interests, should "smell the cocoa". Cocoa, Coffee and Palm (vegetable) oil are the main exports of Ivory Coast. The journey of cocoa, from bean to consumer, especially reveals the true extent to which African commodities underpin global trade, and exposes the various nations that have strategic interests in the outcome of Ivory Coast vs France.

Links:
http://www.newint.org/issue304/farmer.htm = African cocoa farmer visits Cadbury UK
http://www.icco.org = International Cocoa Association
http://www.icco.org/questions/production.htm = the main cocoa producers
http://countrystudies.us/ivory-coast/78.htm = the legacy of Houphouett-Boigny.